A conventional ratchet hand tool such as a ratchet wrench is shown in FIG. 1, and generally includes a head 8 having a through hole 80 defined therethrough so as to receive a driving member 9 in the through hole 80. A recess is defined in an inner periphery of the through hole 10 and a pawl 96 is received in the recess. A switching member 100 is connected to the pawl 96 and has a lever which is protrudes from a top surface of the head 8. A top hole 81 is defined in the top of the head 8 and the driving member 9 has a neck portion 95 which is rotatably engaged with the top hole 81 and a bottom plate 94 is fixed to an underside of the head 8 to position the driving member 9 in the through hole 80. The driving member 9 includes a driving portion 91 which extends through the bottom plate 94 and a releasing assembly is located in the driving member for quickly releasing the driving member 9 from an object or a socket (not shown). A recess 98 is defined in an inside of the recess and a pushing unit 6 is received in the recess 98, wherein the pushing unit 6 includes a pushing piece and a spring which pushes the pushing piece to contact the pawl 96.
The user switches the lever of the switching member 100 to engage the teeth 97 on either of two separated positions of the pawl 96 with the teeth 93 of the driving member 9 so that when rotating the handle of the hand tool, the driving portion 91 of the driving member 9 outputs a torque to the object (not shown) engaged with the socket or the object mentioned above.
The lever of the switching member 100 protrudes above the top surface of the head 8 and makes the head 8 be heavy and occupy a larger space.
The present invention intends to provide a hand tool which does not need the switching member so that the top surface of the head is a flat surface and the thickness of the head can be minimized so as to easily insert into narrow space.